Meet Tom Watkins, the ex-cop turned pet detective who reunited Abbey Clancy with her lost moggie as he reveals tricks of the trade… and how to keep YOUR pet safe

Britain’s top pet dick Tom Watkins shares his sleuthing stories about real life at an animal detective agency

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By Doug Wight

18th March 2017, 1:54 am

Updated: 18th March 2017, 8:45 pm

COMBING the undergrowth for clues, using top thermal-imaging trackers, taking to the skies in a search plane and staging a Crimewatch-style reconstruction.

This is not a full-scale hunt for a missing person — it is Britain’s top pet detective looking for a lost dog.

Adrian Sherratt

Tom Watkins runs Britain's largest pet detective agency

Former cop Tom Watkins will stop at nothing to reunite distraught owners with their missing furry friends and has charted his adventures in new book The Real Pet Detective.

Despite the “slight disadvantage” of being allergic to cats, he has helped solve mysteries over missing moggies, including model Abbey Clancy’s and singer Sandi Thom.

His Animal Search UK base is the largest pet detective agency in Europe.

Eroteme

Abbey Clancy - seen here with her beloved mog Maggie - is one of the celeb cases Tom solved

With 15 staff, a fleet of animal response vehicles — or “petmobiles” — and a 24-hour hotline, Tom is well-placed to tackle the 100 cases added to the agency’s website EVERY DAY.

CASE 1: RANSOM RISK OF A-LIST PUSS

ABBEY, 31, turned to Tom after her beloved cat Maggie went missing from her London home while she was filming Strictly Come Dancing in 2013.

After three days Abbey booked a two-man search to find the long-haired tortoiseshell.

Because of her profile – and footballer husband Peter Crouch, 36 – there was a chance Maggie was being held for ransom.

Tom says: “Abbey had put up her own posters but they’d been ruined by rain. “I recorded her voice and used it to help call for Maggie.

Two weeks after she went missing she turned up safe in Camden. “Abbey was so grateful she tweeted praise for our agency.”

In the past year he helped find nearly 80 per cent of pets on the same day or relatively soon after they were reported missing.
It’s a stat that puts Jim Carrey’s Ace Ventura movie character to shame.

Tom, 43, says: “I’ve reunited thousands of pets with their owners.

Alamy

Tom's Pet Detective record puts Ace Ventura to shame

“No animal is too small or too big for me to track down and rescue. I do it because I love animals and because I want to help people.

“Pets aren’t just animals. To many families they’re like children, and what wouldn’t you do to see your child returned home safely?”

Adrian Sherratt

80% of his cases animals are returned the same day

The dad of two turned his attention to missing pets in 1999 after leaving West Midlands Police.

Armed with just a can of dog food and a map, he joined the hunt for a missing Afghan hound he had heard reports about on the radio.

Within half an hour he had tracked it down to a derelict building, where he handed it over to a dog warden until the owner could be traced.

Adrian Sherratt

Paid services range from £100 upward

Tom says: “It was at that moment that I knew what I wanted to do with my life.”

He launched his animal search agency in 2002, and now uses anything from thermal-imaging cameras to spot cats hiding in sheds and garages, to Dictaphones for recordings of an owner’s voice.

CASE 2: COLLARING CODIE THE COLLIE

ONE of Tom’s big canine cases involved Cody, a two-year-old collie-cross, which went missing in woods near Frensham, Surrey in 2008.

Tom says it was “like looking for a needle in a haystack” and adds: “We searched three square miles in the dark and feared the worst when we found Cody’s collar.

“Just as we were about to give up for the night we got word he had been found. He’d run into a garden. The homeowner had seen one of our posters and called our hotline.

“Mike, his Army officer owner, was overjoyed. There’s nothing more moving than watching an owner reconnect with a lost pet.”

Tom, of Hereford, adds: “My detective methods are colourful and unusual. In one dog-napping case I organised a plane with a banner to fly over its home town and set up the Crimewatch-style reconstruction to prompt witnesses to come forward.”

And it worked.

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Border terrier Toby went missing near Woking, Surrey, in 2014. A young lad found him but gave him to a man in a car who stopped and convinced the boy he would take Toby to a vet if he handed him over.

Tom’s reconstruction video went viral, while the @FindTobyTerrier Twitter account was backed by dog-loving celebs including Andy Murray, Will Young and Sun columnist Lorraine Kelly.

Adrian Sherratt

Tom and his team have handled high profile cases all over the UK

Owner Louise paid £650 for the plane to tow a “Find Toby Terrier” banner one Saturday afternoon.
Toby was eventually dumped in Kent and Tom says: “Our campaign had made him too hot to handle.”

Costs can run into the thousands for the most extensive searches — Louise spent around £4,000 in total — but a lot of Tom’s success is down to knowing animal psychology.

Adrian Sherratt

Tom has a team of 15 equipped with 'pet mobiles'

He explains: “Cats, for example, need three things: Food, shelter and water. Most of these can be found in any housing estate, which is why when cats get lost they will easily re-establish themselves in a new area.

Adrian Sherratt

Missing posters are a good way to promote lost animals

“Dogs behave more frantically when they’re separated from their owner. They will run around haphazardly, desperately trying to find him or her.”

In one of his earliest cases he investigated the disappearance of singer Sandi Thom’s cat, Toots. The pet was never found and police got a tip that it had been shot dead by someone near the 35-year-old’s home in Banff, Scotland.

Adrian Sherratt

Owners can list profiles of their pets on AnimalSearchUK.co.uk for free

By the time Abbey called in 2013, Tom had run up a £15,000 overdraft on the business and was forced to lay off staff and sell his first petmobile.

CASE 3: SLIPPERY SPENCER TRACED

LASSIE lookalike Spencer was lost and disorientated when he slipped out of his collar at motorway services while on his way to a new owner in May 2011.

Tom dispatched search teams around the M5 and used a tracker dog called Max in a bid to pick up Spencer’s scent.

Tom recalls: “After five days our trail had gone cold. “Then, out of luck, I spotted him, but he wasn’t for coming in easily.

He evaded bait-filled humane traps for a further three days before we finally got him.

It was a miracle he was still alive. “His adopted owner Trish burst into tears and I had a lump in my throat. It was a very special moment I’ll never forget.”

But the high-profile case transformed Tom’s fortunes. He recalls: “The gods must have been smiling down on me. One minute we were nearly going under, the next we were headline news.”

Some owners will do anything to find their pets, including hiring a psychic.

Tom says: “One family, from Birmingham, registered their missing cat Frankie and contacted a psychic from Bangalore, in India, to find him.

“The psychic told them Frankie would be in an area where children played. And, sure enough, the cat was in a Wendy house in a back garden in the owner’s street.”

However, Tom’s devotion to finding lost animals has taken its toll. After nine years together, his marriage to wife Jenni broke down.

Tom says 'No animal is too small or too big' - just like Ace

Tom says: “We are are no longer together but are the best of friends.

“I wouldn’t be where I am today if it hadn’t been for her unwavering support.”

CASE 4: THE HUNT FOR TOM CAT RUFUS

MISSING Rufus was Tom’s first cat case after leaving the police to pursue his new career.

The one-year-old ginger tom had been gone from his home in Tarrington, Hereford, for two weeks when the former cop got involved.

The pet detective says: “I printed off 300 leaflets and 25 posters and blitzed the neighbourhood, as well as conducting door-to-door inquiries.

“Thankfully, the posters worked. A gardener saw one and recognised the cat as one he’d seen sleeping in a barn, much to the delight of Rufus’s owner Emma.”

He adds: “Animal Search UK is going from strength to strength.

“I have just launched a new website and we have around 80,000 volunteers searching the country for missing pets. These are kind members of the public who receive alerts about lost pets in their area.

“I finally have the pet police force I’ve always dreamed of.”

WHAT IT COSTS

Free:
Registration on database, secure messaging between volunteers and owners and posting of up to ten photos and one video of pet.

From £100:
Specialist publicity campaigns, including use of 24-hour freephone helpline number.

From £1,000:
Specialist search team for minimum of five hours, including top tech, vehicle and publicity, travel and equipment.

STOP THIEF: HOW TO KEEP YOUR PET SAFE

Keep good photos of your pet in case they go missing.

Never leave your pet alone in a place you would not leave a toddler. Dogs are stolen all the time from unattended cars.

Keep your garden secure if you have a dog that likes to escape. For cats, buy specialist fences to reduce the risk of them doing a disappearing act.

The Real Pet Detective: True Tales Of Pets Lost And Found, by Tom Watkins with Ruth Kelly, is published by Penguin on April 6 at £14.99.